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Listen to the podcast: I Love Linux, But...
Transcript
In the years since I left Microsoft, I've come to appreciate and really enjoy working with Linux and many, many non Microsoft products. Don't get me wrong, I love Windows and Office and other assorted Microsoft products, but I've also come to love Linux.
I host all my sites on Linux, and manage several Linux based servers for clients.
But the Linux distos all need to take a page from the lessons Microsoft had to learn - a lesson that it took Microsoft a long, long time to get.
What am I talking about? Security.
Most default Linux installs are about as secure as, say, Windows 98. Look out on the net, and you'll find lots of laundry lists of additional steps, software and recommendations for things you need to do to your Linux installation in order to secure it from unauthorized access. A long laundry list, that's really only understood by the Linux geeks.
Some of the different pieces of software have different auto-update mechanisms, the cPanel management console, for example, or current Redhat distributions have something called "up2date" which works, sort of. Other distros, other solutions. Maybe.
But this week I found myself wishing for Windows Update on my clients Linux box. And even an equivalent to the Windows Security Center that might offer to enable and configure my firewall for me. Perhaps an included anti-spyware tool that not only detected, but repaired, system intrusions. Even system restore points and the system file checker under Windows were all looking pretty good.
Why? Because a client's machine had been hacked into and a rootkit installed. The net result is that we'll be building out and moving to a new sever. Which will be a lengthy process as I track down all the additional components required to stay secure and build my own checklist.
In 15+ years of working with windows I've never had a server compromised. In the last two years working with Linux, I've death with two complete server rebuilds due to hacks.
I love Linux. Really, I do. But it still has a long way to go. Dare I say, it could learn a lesson or two from Windows.
Have a comment? I know you do. Visit askleo.info, and enter 8836 in the go to article number box. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear from you.
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Article C2382 - July 7, 2005
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
Gentoo... add the use flag "hardened" ... and take a look at the handfull of hardening apps in portage. Portage does almost all the legwork for you.
While Gentoo is non-trivial to install... it makes almost everything post-install trivial if you use portage correctly.
Posted by: georgia_tech_swagger at July 9, 2005 1:04 PMAll: I've added an article that is the laundry list I used: http://ask-leo.com/how_should_i_set_up_my_linux_web_server.html
Posted by: Leo at July 24, 2005 7:04 PMi love linux
but presently my headache was how to use ssh or telnet coz right now im using mysql database
and working inside root directory which is not common
somebody can help me to solve this problem
(im only using one computer ((server/client)itself))
or just give me some idea on how to use mysql in client side
i dont even know how to connect to server side (
im using mandrake linux 10.1
thanx
geo
Posted by: g que at August 23, 2005 9:18 PMI guess I'm having a tough time understanding your question. Could you clarify?
Posted by: Leo at August 26, 2005 8:05 PMi have just installed a linux mandriva 2005 & i cant seem to turn it off.
Posted by: yomi at April 10, 2006 3:50 AMthe only option i have is to log out which doesnt turn off the system.